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The militant Suffrage Movement began in London at about the same time that I brought the first two Morris dancers up to London. From that time for eleven years I was much absorbed in the revival of folk dance so that my connection with the Militant Campaign was not very active.

Not so Emmeline:

She said: “I have had Mrs. Pankhurst to see me, her daughter Christabel has not finished her College career so could not leave Manchester. Mrs. Pankhurst brought Annie Kenney (sic) with her and we had a tremendous talk. I am convinced that these people have got hold of the right idea and I have promised them all I have and all I am for the

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Cause of Woman’s Suffrage.” Then she added, “what is to become of my friends and what is to become of my country home I do not know, for this is going to take all my time and interest, but it is worth while.”

In a very few weeks a little Committee was formed which met in Sylvia’s studio, at first I think there were only six of us, Emmeline, Sylvia, the late Mrs. Clark, Mrs. Martel and Sylvia’s landlady, Mrs. Row. I took the minutes of the first meeting of the Women’s Social and Political union in London and handed them over the next week to Sylvia who became Honorary Secretary. We met in this room all through that spring. Mrs. Pankhurst was the registrar of births and deaths in Manchester and could only come to London for flying visits, so that the whole weight of the work in those early days lays on the shoulders of an unknown girl student, Sylvia, and on Emmeline already well-known as a social worker.

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